“Another round of humanitarian operation is completed successfully. More than 180 trucks that delivered humanitarian cargoes to the Donetsk and Lugansk regions have returned to Russia empty,” Alexander Drobyshevsky, a Russian emergencies ministry spokesman, told TASS.

All the trucks were checked by customs and border officers at two border checkpoints in Russia’s southern Rostov region - Donetsk and Matveyev Kurgan - in the presence of Ukrainian customs officers and representatives from the mission of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

“The cargoes were delivered to the destinations. No accidents took place while the trucks were on their way to and from Donbass. The drivers fell well, the vehicles are in good conditions,” said Vasily Myasnikov, a deputy chief of the Noginsk rescue centre.

Tenth, New Year, humanitarian mission

It was the tenth humanitarian convoy from Russia to eastern Ukraine. This time, about 900 tonnes of humanitarian assistance were delivered on Sunday to Donetsk, and more than 500 tonnes - to Lugansk. The humanitarian aid included food products, medicines, building materials and about 470 tonnes of New Year presents - stuffed toys, Christmas trees and decorations, and traditional New Year sweets.

All presents were packed in cardboard boxes with inscriptions saying “For children of Novorossia.” These presents were raised in a public campaign in Russia’s Voronezh, Belgorod, Lipetsk, Saratov, Kursk and Yaroslavl regions.

Ten-kilometre convoys

The tenth humanitarian convoy was among the most massive. The trucks set off at 04:00 a.m. on Sunday from the emergencies ministry’s Don rescue centre. Before the border it broke down in two ten-kilometre lines of trucks. This time it took such lengthy convoys more time to reach their destinations in Donetsk and Lugansk and be unloaded there.

In all, the ten Russian humanitarian convoys have delivered more than 13,000 tonnes of humanitarian cargoes to eastern Ukraine.